[TowerTalk] Question about Hub City oil change

[Richard (Rick) Karlquist]

Question: does synthetic gear oil have noticeably lower
friction than petroleum based oil?

Today I changed in gear oil in the Hub City
gear box on my HDX-5106.  I used Motion Industries
PGO-FGL 460 synthetic gear oil.  First I warmed
up the box by raising and lowering the tower a
couple of times.  The HC box was now at about 60
degrees C.  I flushed a couple of times using
a flush that Motion Industries recommended.  Finally,
I put in the initial fill of the synthetic oil.

When I turned on the winch going up, everything appeared to
be "normal", as it was with the old oil.  I stopped
the winch and started it going down, still everything normal.

However, when I turned off the winch going down, the
motor took much longer than before to spin down;
the better part of a minute. The tower continued to
move down an additional 18 inches after the switch
was thrown.  Much farther than before the oil change.
I might have to re-position the lower limit switch.

Has anyone else seen this phenomenon?  Is it conceivable
that the synthetic oil is that much "slipperier" than
the old oil?  Did I use the wrong oil?  Too little
viscosity?  It didn't seem like it was lower viscosity
than the old stuff.

I drained the initial fill of oil and refilled it again,
but nothing changed.

Rick N6RK

On 8/5/2017 9:28 AM, Jim Brown wrote:
> More than 10 years ago, I bought a bunch of this stuff and built wire 
> antennas with it. All broke within a year.  I love Davis RF coax, but 
> this wire is a loser.
> 
> 73, Jim K9YC
> 
> On 8/5/2017 8:39 AM, Mickey Baker wrote:
>> I use the Davis FlexWeave insulated wire
> 
> 
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